Author: admin

College student standard essay, No need for highfalutin words.
Length: 1500-2000 words, typed, double-spaced.
Citation: Use MLA format.
Requirements:
Thesis. Your essay must be governed by a thesis that (a) responds directly to the essay topic, (b) is arguable, and (c) is stated at the end of the first paragraph having clearly defined all the central terms.
Textual Support. Your thesis must be supported by major interpretive claims (topic sentences) that are supported by at least one appropriate quote or allusion per body paragraph. Your ability to select, interpret, and apply the appropriate textual evidence is key to doing well with the essay. Additionally, you should illustrate your argument with at least one example drawn from your own life, observations, or engagement with other texts, movies, plays, etc.
Reasoning. You must consistently use and apply logical reasoning in developing your thesis.
Writing.Your essay must be written well. There should be no awkward sentences, rough transitions between paragraphs, incoherent paragraphs, extraneous information/unnecessary sentences, typos, or stylistic errors.
Use of ChatGPT, Grammerly, or other AI software is absolutely prohibited in this class. Use of these tools will result in your receiving a failing grade for the assignment.
Evaluation:
Paper was original, insightful, going beyond ideas discussed in class. You have a clear, complex thesis. Your essay demonstrates your thorough understanding of the material covered by the assignment, texts, and lectures.
· Complex, sophisticated thesis.
· All claims supported by well-chosen quotations that are integrated into the argument of the paper.
· No awkward sentences, no unnecessary sentences, or extraneous information.
Third, I will consider the quality of the writing and the general structure of the paper.
Objectives:
For this assignment, you will need to demonstrate your ability to apply the ideas in Freud, Plato, and Lacan to analyzing themes, ideas, characters, and actions in the “narrative” texts from the second half of the semester (Antigone, Hamlet, Fun Home, Between the World and Me)
The successful paper will:
• Demonstrate a clear, sophisticated understanding of ideas developed in our analysis of Freud, Lacan, and Plato and be able to appropriately apply those ideas to an analysis of Antigone, Hamlet, Fun Home, and Between the World and Me.
• Will accurately represent the positions/ideas/themes/actions presented in Antigone, Hamlet, Fun Home, and Between the World and Me.
• Will choose appropriate quotes from Antigone, Hamlet, Fun Home, and Between the World and Me and effectively integrate them into the student’s own argument regarding the topic.
• Will state and develop a thesis in response to one of the assigned topics.
Topics: Choose one of the topics below.
1 Desire. What is desire? What role does it play in human experience? How is it different from other experiences (e.g., “pleasure” and possibly “love”)? Develop your own “theory of desire” based on your reading of Freud, Lacan, and/or Plato. You need not agree with Freud, Lacan, and Plato, but your paper MUST REFLECT A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF AT LEAST ONE OF THE THEORIES OF DESIRE in those texts. Using this theory of desire, analyze the role of desire (as you have presented it) in one or more of the following: Antigone, Hamlet, Between the World and Me, Fun Home.
2 Erotic Truth. Bechdel describes “erotic truth” as “a rather sweeping concept.” What does she mean by erotic truth? Using at least two other texts/films assigned for this class, one of which MUST BE FREUD, LACAN, OR PLATO, write an essay in which you explore the possible meanings of this phrase, “erotic truth” (as Bechdel seems to be using it).
3 Race. Explain Coates’ account of race. What does he think it is? Why does it take the shape it does in our culture? Then analyze and evaluate this theory using at least one of the theory texts (Freud, Lacan, Plato).
4 The Political. Use the theoretical works (Freud, Lacan, and/or Plato) to develop a theory of “the political.” In other words, what forces govern our political interactions? What problems emerge? What solutions might we propose? Illustrate the effectiveness of your theory with examples from Antigone, Hamlet, Fun Home, and/or Between the World and Me.
5 For Freud (and Lacan) an internal antagonism is central to the life of “the subject.” Based on your reading of one of the narrative texts for this course (The Antigone, Hamlet, Fun Home, and Between the World and Me) write an essay in which you evaluate the effectiveness of this “antagonism” thesis.
6 Action (and Destruction). Antigone, Hamlet, and Bruce (Fun Home) are all characterized by decisive action (that leads to their destruction). Write a paper in which you analyze and compare the central role of Desire in their action as it leads to their own destruction.
7 This is Love. Compare, analyze, and assess the ways in which love has been described in the texts we have studied during this class, paying special attention to how it is described in Antigone and Hamlet. From this come to some conclusions about what love is, or at least how love is experienced and conceived. Finally, make some kind of claim about the role of love in the production of the (human) subject. (For this topic, you might also consider Freud, Plato, Beginners, and Vertigo.)
8 Crazy Talk. What makes a speech (or speech in general) seem rational? What makes it seem “irrational?” Hamlet, Ophelia, and Antigone all have moments when their speech is interpreted as lacking in sanity and/or rationality. Analyze these moments in both plays and explain what this can tell us about what are the marks of rationality in spoken worlds.

Write a paragraph length answer (100 word+ minimum) for each reading question. Include observations about basic literary elements (character, structure, plot, setting, tone, and theme for prose; theme, structure, rhyme, symbols, images, etc. for poetry). Include specific, parenthetically documented observations and/or short quotes from the unit readings to support each answer. Edit each response for clarity, conciseness, and grammatical correctness before submission.
Avoid using online sources like Wikipedia, SparkNotes, Grade Saver, etc. in place of your own analysis. If you borrow ideas, words, or other information beyond the course text, they must be documented parenthetically and a Works Cited page included.
NOTE:  Turnitin (a function of Canvas) will generate an originality report on your responses.  Inappropriately borrowed and/or undocumented wording will lower the grade, possibly to zero, depending on the level of borrowing.  
Do not include the instructor’s prompts in your Reading Questions submission to avoid inflating the Turnitin word count.  Number each response.
Unit 1: On Faith, Doubt, and Reason
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64) was a sixth-generation resident of Salem, Massachusetts. Two of his Puritan ancestors were implicated in various religious persecutions, Indian genocide, and the trial and execution of supposed witches in the 17th century, the setting in time for “Young Goodman Brown.” What causes Goodman Brown to “abandon his faith”? Why is his dying hour “gloom”?
Identify the speaker of the following words in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”: “Depending on one another’s hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived! Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome, again, my children, to the communion of your race!” (619). Does Goodman Brown trust the speaker and his words? What, if anything, is missing in the speaker’s understanding about human nature in relation to truth, justice, and God? Compare these words and their speaker to those of the Misfit in Flannery O’Connor’s story “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
Leo Tolstoy (1847-1910) embraced a very personal form of Christian belief that minimized wealth and ambition in favor of relative simplicity and mercy toward others. His novella The Death of Ivan Ilych describes the dual trajectories of one man’s “conversion” from the shallowness of bourgeois (materialistic middle-class life) to the acceptance of essential truths, including mercy, transformative suffering, and death. Chart Ivan’s movement away from a life of trivialities to one characterized by the acceptance of fundamental human virtues and truths realized through suffering.
Most characters in The Death of Ivan Ilych exhibit little or no mercy for the main character’s suffering and death. Contrast the attitudes and actions of Gerasim and Vasya with those of any two other characters in the story. Why are Gerasim and Vasya important thematically to the story?
Flannery O’Connor (1925-64) was an observant Roman Catholic whose short stories often address issues of faith and redemption. Like Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” addresses the issue of human depravity (lostness). Two of her characters speak the “truth” about human nature, namely Red Sammy and the Misfit. State and analyze what each says about human nature. Are these characters on the side of good or evil? Does what they say apply to everyone? Does it apply to the grandmother and her family? Are they “good” or “not good”? Do they deserve to die?
Christians generally believe that human beings have a problem that only God can solve. The Apostle Paul writes, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Trace the grandmother’s spiritual movement in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” What is she like before meeting the Misfit? How does she change through interacting with him? According to the Misfit what did the grandmother need to make her “a good woman”? How does the grandmother demonstrate “redemption” by the end of the story?
Compare/contrast the sentiments concerning death of John Donne’s (1572-1631) sonnet “Death be not proud” with Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych. Do the authors agree or disagree about the reality and nature of death in human experience?
Margaret Atwood (b. 1939) has embraced a life-long commitment to agnosticism, the view that we cannot “know” whether God exists or not. She limits her beliefs, understanding, and values to what can be known, observed, and tested scientifically. Her experimental story “Happy Endings” explores human relationships from various points of view. What “truth” does she arrive at? In what way does that truth affirm or question her agnosticism?
Stories:
Hawthorne, N., “Young Goodman Brown,” pp. 611-20
Tolstoy, L., The Death of Ivan Ilych, 303-40
O’Connor, F., “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” pp. 399-409
Poems:
Donne, J., “Death be not proud,” p. 1082
Atwood, M., “Happy Endings,” pp. 187-89
View:
Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason: Margaret Atwood (34:36) (Click link to view.)
Time Saver Hint: View the video at a faster speed (like 1.25x). See the opening screen menu for the speed function. Films on Demand also provides a transcript function for each film to assist in time management and quoting in the Interactive Assessment assignments.